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Congressman Wayne Owens urges state support for hazardous-waste controls, discusses wilderness and education funding
Summary
In a Committee of the Whole, Congressman Wayne Owens addressed the Utah House, pressing for federal bills to give states greater authority over imported waste (HR 816), urging practical wilderness trade-offs, and promising a push on education-funding parity in Congress.
Congressman Wayne Owens appeared before the Utah House in a Committee of the Whole and addressed a range of federal policy items of interest to state lawmakers.
Owens described four pending pieces of legislation dealing with different categories of waste and said one bill—referred on the floor as HR 816—would give states the ability to regulate or refuse importation of specified kinds of waste, including hazardous and low-level radioactive material. "My legislation, HR 8 16, has the support... It would provide for each state the opportunity... to refuse waste into the state or to regulate its acceptance into the state," Owens said, noting support from members of the Utah congressional delegation and the governor.
He also discussed wilderness-designation trade-offs and the complexity of reconciling environmental and economic values across Utah's landscapes, and he signaled intention to press for an amendment to change the federal education funding formula to provide greater parity for Utah students. Owens told the chamber he planned to bring an amendment to adjust the funding formula "in 2 and a half weeks" and that members of the delegation had been working on the issue.
House members asked about endangered-species and wetland mitigation work; Owens described ongoing negotiations and cautioned that legislative outcomes were uncertain. He thanked the House for the invitation and took a few questions before the chamber resolved itself from the Committee of the Whole.
